


Searing Mistake

by kisslicknipsuck



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-21
Updated: 2013-10-21
Packaged: 2017-12-30 02:24:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1012927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisslicknipsuck/pseuds/kisslicknipsuck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Draco's ignorance of Muggle traditions results in an unfortunate misunderstanding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Searing Mistake

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ's hd_writers's Tricks for Treats fest/challenge/thing for the prompt _First Halloween_. Unbeta'd.

Screams drew his attention. Harry'd been peacefully stirring tomato sauce in a pot to make chicken parmesan for dinner when the shrieks pierced through the house, making him jump and drop his wooden spoon. Wasting no time, Harry abandoned the sauce to rush towards the front of the house from where he'd heard the screams coming. 

"What's going on?" Harry demanded when he reached the front door to find Draco, wand in hand, frowning outside at something Harry couldn't see, but was undoubtedly the thing shrieking. 

He rushed up beside his lover and gazed out at whatever Draco was glaring at. Alarm seized him when he saw a man, drenched in fire from head to toe, flailing on the ground in agony while groups of children and parents looked on in horror. 

"Bloody hell!" Harry cried, running out to help the man in the street without a second thought. He pulled his wand out of his sleeve and quickly Aguamenti'd the flames away, not caring if the slew of Muggles saw him do it. He'd worry about Obliviating them later. 

The man ceased his writhing when the fire was put out but he continued to moan distressingly. The fire had burnt holes in his clothing, exposing areas of his flesh. His hair had been incinerated and the skin on parts of his face and hands had been scorched black. He wasn't going to live for very much longer if something wasn't done immediately. 

So Harry knelt beside him and prepared to start weaving every burn-healing spell he knew, which wasn't very many since he was a Sports Healer and specialized more in impact injuries. He'd had the basic training for healing burns in Healer school, though, and would do his best. 

Before he could begin the incantation for the first spell, however, Draco wrenched him back by his collar, disrupting his concentration. 

"What are you _doing_ , Harry?" Draco hissed, pulling Harry back behind himself so he was bodily between Harry and the injured man. His wand was raised threateningly at the man and his face looked fierce. 

"What am _I_ doing?" Harry said, incredulous. "What are _you_ doing? That man is dying!" Harry forcibly freed himself from Draco's grasp and moved to help the man again. 

"He's not a man," Draco said, grabbing his arm to prevent Harry's advance towards the man. "Not anymore. He's an Inferi." 

Harry gaped at Draco in disbelief, momentarily ceasing his struggle to get to the dying man. 

"I was walking up the road from the Apparition point and it attacked me out of nowhere."

"Draco…" Harry started, rubbing the side of his nose in frustration. "He's not an Inferi. He's a man dressed up as a zombie. It's _Halloween_." 

Looking closer at the man, Harry realized that the holes in his clothes weren't from the fire, but were probably intentionally put there for his costume. And the blackness on his face wasn't burnt skin. It was makeup. His baldness was likely a bald cap covering his hair underneath. 

"Halloween? You mean All Hallows Eve?" Draco glared at Harry. "I know what day it is, Harry. What does that have to do with anything? And what's a _zombie_ for that matter?" he said with a confused frown.

Harry sighed. He should've known living in a Muggle neighborhood with his Pureblood partner would be a bad idea. 

Pushing past Draco, Harry started waving his wand purposefully over the prone man, healing his thankfully superficial burns easily while he explained things to his lover as patiently as possible. "Muggles celebrate All Hallows Eve by dressing up like monsters or whatever and go around door-to-door collecting candy."

Draco seemed to mull that over for a bit before declaring, "That's ridiculous."

The man's wounds healed, Harry stood and turned to look at Draco, who was scanning the costumed Muggles disdainfully. "It's meant to be good fun—mostly for children. And zombies aren't real things, but the idea of them is like an Inferi, except it doesn't have to be raised by dark magic, and it's only purpose is to eat flesh of brains."

"Well, that explains why he was moaning, 'Braaaaains' when he attacked me." Draco shrugged. "Anyway, what was he thinking, attacking a stranger?"

Harry just rolled his eyes at the predictably unapologetic response. "Just start Obliviating people, would you?"


End file.
